There was a new head coach, a new season, but the same old outcome.
The UCSD men’s volleyball team lost its season opener at home in straight sets 24-30, 21-30, 21-30 to No. 1 Cal State Long Beach on Jan. 11.
Though head coach Kevin Ring’s debut as the Tritons’ leader resulted in a loss, he saw many positive things from his team.
“Our transition game was all right late and in the middle part of the game,” Ring said. “I appreciate the effort the guys gave. We’ve seen some things we need to work on and I think we’re playing at a pretty high level right now.”
The Tritons came out strong in game one, forcing the 49ers to use a timeout after a kill by senior opposite Chris Sayers brought the early UCSD lead to 14-11. Sayers led the Tritons with 13 kills and redshirt freshman middle blocker Tim Dietrich added six more on .364 hitting.
“Our team stepped up and played with them the first game,” Sayers said.
UCSD kept their lead until a Long Beach kill by Paul Lotman put the 49ers in front 18-19. The Tritons kept it close, but the 49ers managed to score six of the last eight to end the game 30-24 on a UCSD attack error.
Game two also started off very close, but Long Beach’s .429 attack percentage during the second game was too much for UCSD to handle, falling 21-30. The winning point for the 49ers was on another Triton mistake, this time a service error.
“A lot of the points that they scored tonight were just kind of errors on our side,” Ring said.
From early on in game three, the 49ers took control with a 3-10 lead. A service ace by senior outside hitter Jon Daze brought UCSD within four points at 16-20, but the team couldn’t get any closer. The 49ers hit .545 to the Tritons .121 to take the game and the match 21-30. Senior middle blocker Duncan Budinger led the way with 13 kills for Long Beach on .812 hitting, including the kill that secured the win.
UCSD junior setter Brooks Dierdorff had 35 assists and five kills on 1.000 hitting.
“It’s all going to run through [Dierdorff],” Ring said. “He’s our setter. He’s our main leader on the court.”
This was a fairly competitive match against a team that just came off a win in the UCSB/Elephant Bar Collegiate Invitational, improving the 49ers record to an undefeated 4-0.
“Long Beach State is as good of a team as we’ll see all year,” Ring said.
According to the new head coach, the Tritons will need a lot more from Dierdorff and everyone else the rest of the season, but this was a start.
“We never gave up and we showed a lot of heart,” Sayers said, “I think this year is going to be a really good year.”
UCSD and No. 10 Ohio State competed in a two-match series over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in OSU’s St. John Arena.
On Jan. 13, the Buckeyes won the match in four games 25-30, 22-30, 33-31, 17-30. Once again, Sayers led the way for the Tritons with 13 kills while junior middle blocker Garret Smith added 11 kills hitting at a .476 clip. Dierdorff finished with 47 assists and sophomore outside hitter Russ Hardy had 11 digs for the game.
UCSD kept it very close throughout game three with many ties and lead changes until a Smith kill and a block by Dierdorff and John Mark Wendler gave them their first game of the year.
On Jan. 15, the Tritons lost again in four games to OSU, dropping to 0-3 for the season. The Buckeyes improve to a perfect 5-0 with the 23-30, 30-27, 25-30, 23-30 win.
UCSD had three of their players reach double-digits in kills with Jon Daze contributing 18 on .429 hitting. Dierdorff continued to improve with a match-high 49 assists for UCSD.
UCSD will be back in action on the road Jan. 19 against Stanford.
